HELP! GS1100E swingarm into GS750E

[Anonymous]

I bought an aluminum swingarm from the '82 GS1100E. I was informed that this swingarm was a bolt on replacement for the '81 GS750E.

I had the dealer put new bearings, bushings, spacers and dust caps on it. I got it back yesterday and tried to do the swap today. The problem is, I can't install it in my '81 GS750E. The pivot bolt for the 1100 has a larger diameter than the one for the 750. The 1100 bolt won't fit through the frame on the 750. The 1100 bolt is too short, even if it did. I can't use the 750 bolt because the bushings inside the 1100 swingarm are too large in diameter. The hole in the ends of the new dust caps is too big to use with the 750 bolt. The bearings/bushings fron the 750 won't fit into the 1100 swingarm because their diameters are too small. I am stumped.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark

[Billy Ricks]

Will the bushings out of the 750 swingarm fit the 1100 swingarm so you can use the stock bolt?

[Anonymous]

No. The pivot end of the 1100 swingarm is substantially larger in diameter. The bearings/bushings in the 1100 swingarm are larger in diameter than the 750 ones. The 750 bearings would just rattle around inside the 1100 swingarm. The 750 bushing will only rattle around inside the 1100 bearings.

Ideally, I would need a custom bushing with the inside diameter of the 750 and an outside diameter of the 1100, but I have no idea how to get such a bushing.

[Billy Ricks]

That's too bad. I picked up a '93 GSX-R swingarm for my bike. The outer diameter of my GS bushings are the same as the GSX-R so I just need to have them shortened and I can use my old pivot bolt.

[moto_dan]

No. The pivot end of the 1100 swingarm is substantially larger in diameter. The bearings/bushings in the 1100 swingarm are larger in diameter than the 750 ones. The 750 bearings would just rattle around inside the 1100 swingarm. The 750 bushing will only rattle around inside the 1100 bearings.

Ideally, I would need a custom bushing with the inside diameter of the 750 and an outside diameter of the 1100, but I have no idea how to get such a bushing.

When I mounted my 1100 aluminum swingarm on my 750L chassis I drilled out the holes in the frame, but I would suggest trying to find a bushing to fit the 750 bolt to the 1100 swingarm.

[Anonymous]

If you take the swingarm and the pivot bolt to any competant machine shop, they should be able to make you the bushings.

[Anonymous]

Mark, my fellow 750'er I went through this 4 years ago. What you need to do is first make sure the spacers and the pivot shaft are in good shape. You said you have all new hardware which is better than reusing old parts like I did(and I have mine apart again to change the bearings and add 2 thrust washers) so you're ok. take the bushing outside diameter,length and the pivot diameter and go down to the local machine shop and tell them you need these made. Mine were made out of superior shaft because the material is hardened on the outside so when ground down to the size needed it is still hard enough that the hardened bearings won't chew up the bushings in a short time. Cost me $50 for the 2 bearing bushings and I reused the 750 centre spacer. Double check your side play in the swingarm as I found I need to double my shims to take out some slack that mysteriously appeared lastweek. Funny how I never noticed the slop before?? I noticed a difference in the handling after the swapover was first done, so it's a good move.
Give a yell if you need any other info, I may have forgot to tell you something, my memory kinda sucks sometimes. :roll:

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's the fix:

I took the 750 pivot bolt and the 1100 bushings to a machine shop. The bushing is hardened steel. They are going to press fit a bronze bushing inside the hardened steel bushing. Then they are going to bore the bronze bushing to the diameter of the pivot bolt. It will cost me $15 and will be done today.

One alternative was to machine a new hardened bushing with the outside diameter of the 1100 bushing and the inner diameter of the 750 pivot bolt. That solution would have taken longer and been more costly. According to the machine shop, there would be no advantage to this option.

The other solution would have been to machine a bronze bushing to replace the bearing/bushing assembly. However, since I had already bought new bearings and bushings, I wanted to use them.